Travis bassist Dougie Payne has revealed the band has been asked to play some special shows celebrating their hit second album The Man Who, released in 1999.
Travis have been asked to perform their seminal second album The Man Who in full next year.
The Scottish indie band’s 1999 LP – which featured the singles Writing To Reach You, Driftwood and Why Does It Always Rain On Me? – reached the Number One spot on the Official UK Albums Chart and was a hit around the world.
Although it does do not celebrate it’s 30th anniversary until May 2029, Travis bassist Dougie Payne has revealed that the band have been asked to do some special gigs in 2026 celebrating the acclaimed record.
When asked if Travis would be prepared to play The Man Who in full to mark its upcoming milestone, he said: “I think there’s talk with people in Japan or Australia who want us to do that at some point next year. That might already happen, but we shall see.”
Discussing the trend for celebrating album anniversaries with live shows honouring the records, he added: “I see no problem with doing that. It’s quite interesting to do. We’ve done it … I’m not averse to doing that again with another album.”
Travis – also comprised of singer-and-guitarist Fran Healy, guitarist Andy Dunlop and drummer Neil Primrose – previously marked the 20th anniversary of their third album The Invisible Band by playing every track live for fans, and Dougie enjoyed revisiting the 2001 record for the series of gigs that happened in 2022.
He said: “It was meant to be the 20th anniversary of The Invisible Band but because of COVID we had to delay it so it ended up being the 21st anniversary. We did that and it was really interesting to do because with that record there were songs that we had never played live and there were songs that we hadn’t played for 20 years. It was really interesting to go back and re-visit that record because you don’t go back and listen to yourself, well I don’t anyway, I listen to other things. I don’t put on our records for fun when I’m at home.
“It was doubly interesting to play that record as a live set and it actually held together pretty well. I was quite surprised because with that record you’ve got Sing, Side and then Flowers In The Window within the first seven songs so you’re getting big songs out of the way. So it was interesting thing to try and make a live show work from that point of view. I really enjoyed it, I loved playing that record.”
